GNUCash - for those in the dark - is a Free accounting package which you can use to keep track of your net worth, your income, and expenses. It operates under the double entry accounting principle.

If you are not aware of double entry accounting, let me direct you to a wonderful article called "A day in the life of Dave the Dollar" which explains this concept in simple layman terms. In fact, a few years back, it was this very article which persuaded me to start using GNUCash in the first place.

GNUCash team recently released the latest iteration of its flagship product aka version 2.4. GNUCash is a stable and mature product fit to be used not just by home users but also in small businesses. So you won't find that many new features.

However, in version 2.4.0, GNUCash has transitioned to the more advanced WebKit engine to render reports and graphs. In earlier versions, GtkHTML HTML engine was used. Another interesting feature you will find in ver 2.4.0 is the ability to optionally use a database such as Sqlite3, MySQL, or PostgreSQL to store your accounting data instead of the traditional XML based native file format.

The XML-based native file format is adequate for personal finance uses but it does not scale well to the numbers of transactions seen in a typical business setting, and it is not well suited to a multi-user, integrated workflow.

You can download the latest version of GNUCash 2.4.0 from its website. It is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. If you are using a rolling release Linux distribution (such as PCLinuxOS), you can install it directly from its repository.

I am curious, do you use an accounting software to keep your accounts ? If yes, which do you prefer ?